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Amasa Walker | |
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| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromMassachusetts's9th district | |
| In office December 1, 1862 – March 3, 1863 | |
| Preceded by | Goldsmith Bailey |
| Succeeded by | William B. Washburn |
| 11th Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth | |
| In office 1851–1853 | |
| Preceded by | William B. Calhoun |
| Succeeded by | Ephraim M. Wright |
| Massachusetts State Senate | |
| In office January 1850 – January 1851 | |
| Massachusetts House of Representatives | |
| In office January 1850 – January 1850 | |
| In office January 1860 – January 1861 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | May 4, 1799 |
| Died | October 29, 1875(1875-10-29) (aged 76) |
| Political party | Anti-Masonic Democratic (before 1844) Liberty Party (1844–48) Free Soil Party (1848–56) Republican (after 1856) |
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Amasa Walker (May 4, 1799 – October 29, 1875) was an American economist andUnited States Representative. He was the father ofFrancis Amasa Walker.
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He moved with his parents toNorth Brookfield, Massachusetts, and attended the district school. In 1814 he entered commercial life, and in 1820 formed a partnership with Allen Newell in North Brookfield, but three years later withdrew to become the agent of the Methuen Manufacturing Company. In 1825 he formed the firm of Carleton and Walker, of Boston, with Charles G. Carleton, but in 1827 he went into business independently.
He was the unsuccessfulDemocratic Party nominee formayor of Boston in the1837 Boston mayoral election.[1][2]
He was a delegate to the 1836Democratic National Convention. In 1839, he became president of the Boston Temperance Society, the first total abstinence association in that city, and in 1839 he advocated a continuous railway between Boston and theMississippi River. In 1840 he retired from commercial life and went into academia.[3]
In 1842–1848, he lectured onpolitical economy atOberlin College.[4] In 1853–1860, he was an examiner on political economy atHarvard, and in 1859–1869 lecturer on political economy atAmherst College. The degree ofLL.D. was conferred on him by Amherst in 1867.
He was a frequent contributor to periodical literature, especially on financial subjects. His principal work,Science of Wealth, a Manual of Political Economy, was published in 1866. Other works wereNature and Uses of Money and Mixed Currency (Boston, 1857) and, with William B. Calhoun and Charles L. Flint,Transactions of the Agricultural Societies of Massachusetts (7 vols., 1848–1854). In 1857, he began the publication of a series of articles on political economy inHunt's Merchant's Magazine.
He was active in the anti-slavery movement, and in 1848 he was one of the founders of theFree Soil Party. Walker served in theMassachusetts House of Representatives in 1849 and 1860, in theMassachusetts State Senate in 1850, asMassachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth 1851–1853, and in theUnited States House of Representatives 1862–1863, where he was elected as aRepublican to fill the vacancy caused by the death ofGoldsmith Bailey.
In 1853, he was chosen as a member of the convention for revising the state constitution, becoming the chairman of the committee on suffrage. In 1860, he was chosen as a member of theelectoral college of Massachusetts and cast his ballot forAbraham Lincoln.[citation needed] Walker was a delegate to the firstInternational Peace Congress in London of 1843, and he served at the Paris Congress in 1849.[4]
| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | 11thMassachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth 1851–1853 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
| Preceded by | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromMassachusetts's 9th congressional district 1862–1863 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
